Trails of Hats'n Hospitalitea

Me… “Braxton!  give me one more minute.”

Me…  “I promise, I’ll come and play with you.”

Braxton,  “I’m getting old waiting.”

Me… “Sorry I’ve been [ Scrap?·book·ing].”

Braxton, “Do you know how long you have been doing that?”

Me… “No, but you’re about to tell me.”

Time does go by fast, the minutes, hours, days, weeks and years.  Sometimes I just can’t find the time anymore to get everything done in the run of a day.

xo,

cindy

Welcome to a few Trails of Hats’n Hospitalitea. I’m an Inn keeper in Prince Edward Island and it is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.  I have guests staying with us the weekend from New Hampshire and from Maine.  I want to decorate for Fall, come and see how I make a door wreath for $1.00 Canadian.

This kiwi tree is ginormous. We have a kiwi tree out behind the barn that provides us with so many vines we could keep the Island in wreaths all year round. If anyone wants to come snip let me know as the tree could use a little pruning.

I cut these vines down and when I had about 10 of them I took all the leaves off. You can see that this is a twisty vine and this is good for wrapping. I collected a few dried ones but couldn’t use them they have to be green.

I started with three vines and put them into a circle. Then I took another vine and twisted it wrapping it around until I came back to where it began. I continued this until I had the wreath as full as I wanted it.

From this picture you can see the ends of the branches are out past the wreath and these were the starting points and they will be trimmed up in the next photo.

I needed to go to the barn to get some hand clippers to cut the ends off the branches and Braxton makes sure to watch. He is curious but won’t come into the barn. I caught a glimpse of him as he poked his head around the barn door for the third time and he is about to say, “come on mama.”

Once I had the wreath wrapped and I started to look for tools that is when the French Gardener saw what i was doing and he came with a pair of snips and cut the ends off for me. You want to make sure not to cut them too close to the wreath in case the wrap lets go. If they stick out a little it is ok because you will add fall decorations and it will hide this.

Now that the wreath is ready and the ends are cut off I need some nature to glue onto it.

Now that the wreath is finished I walked about the back yard and collected some Fall leaves, pine cones, crab apples and holly berries to glue onto the wreath.
recap of cost of wreath
vines off the kiwi tree $0
pine cones, berries & apples $0
dollar store Fall garland $1.00

Here is the wreath finished. I wrapped the Fall garland around my wreath then used a glue gun to glue on the berries, pine cones, leaves and little crab apples in spots where they would be visible, voila.

Our front door is ready for Fall company. My $1.00 wreath can have the Fall garland taken off and at Christmas Time I’ll get a Christmas garland and wrap it around, double voila.


Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to make a few Fall decorations this time of year.
xo,
cindy

Braxton is my shadow Chihuahua who  loves to take a walk-about the garden with me however his area of adventure is often interrupted by an invisible fence we have around the yard.

Braxton, “Why do you go into the front yard where I can’t go?”

Me, “Braxton you wait there while I weed the front garden”

Braxton, “What else would you have me do? I have an electric fence stopping me from going where you are.”

I walk in the garden and Braxton follows me as far as his collar will let him go.

Braxton, “Come on are you done yet, already?”

Me, “Hi Braxton, good boy you wait for me. ”

Braxton, “Ya like I’m going to come close to that wire.”

Braxton, “Are you almost done?”

Me, “Braxton why don’t you sit in the shade and wait for me.”

Braxton, ” Because I would rather sit on the swing and have ice cream.”

Me, “Braxton you were so good not to go into the front yard I’m going to get you a little bowl of ice cream and you and I can take a break on the swing.”

Braxton, “Ya, I have you fooled with these big helpless got to have ice cream eyes again.”

Me, “Come on lets see if we have any cones left.”

______________________________

This collar is part of an invisible fence unit that gives Braxton the freedom to roam around the yard and keeps him away from our guests.

Every time I come home this little guy is waiting for me, loyal to the end and he will sit for hours and watch me work sometimes falling asleep sitting up.

xo,

cindy

Me – “Mr. Braxton, come on it is time to get up, get moving and do the morning routine”.

Braxton – “Ya, no”

Me – “Come on Braxton, you have to go out, I have to start breakfast for our guests!”

Braxton – “Is the sun shining yet?”

not budging

Me – “I know it has been rainy every day this week, I promise the weather will be nicer on the weekend, you’ll see.”

Braxton – “Ya, that was your promise yesterday when you put me out in the pouring rain”

Me – I don’t have time for this, this morning”

Braxton – “That’s fine I’ll still be here, you can put me out when the sun shines.

This week in Prince Edward Island it has been rainy all week.  We have guests and I’m sure others have had to run between the rain drops all week.  The grass is growing like crazy and my garden is calling me.  Have a great weekend everyone, I’ll see you on Monday – I’ts laundry day.

xo,

cindy